I previously talked about fruit damage caused by birds scratching and puncturing green fruit. There is another type of damage to citrus fruit caused by an insect that looks like a grasshopper called a katydid. These insects are green and well camouflaged. They develop flat wings as adults that make them look like a leaf (Fig. 1). If you find a fruit that appears to have scar tissue that is very different looking than the peel, that is likely caused by the feeding of a katydid (Fig. 2). Immature katydids or nymphs (Fig. 3), will feed on the fruit when it is small, often smaller than a dime. The feeding pattern is often a roundish in shape but can be irregular. If the fruit doesn’t fall off it will form a blemish that looks like a scar and be a lighter gray or tan color (Fig. 4). This blemish is often very distinct from the normal green citrus peel. The damage from these insects is usually not widespread enough to be a problem in commercial groves but the damage will make the fruit unsellable. In early spring you can often find the flat, oval egg casings of a katy-did embedded in the edge of a leaf (Fig. 5). The nymphs will emerge in April and May leaving a tiny hole in the egg casing.
